World News - Spy death inquiry finds radiation at 12 British sites and on two planes

British authorities have found traces of low-level radioactivity at a dozen sites and on two commercial jets in an expanding investigation into the bizarre death of a former Soviet spy who was poisoned with polonium-210. Home Secretary John Reid, who reported on the latest findings Thursday, said experts are examining 24 sites and five planes in all. Reid did not say whether the radioactivity found at the 12 sites was polonium-210, which was used to poison former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died a week ago.In Moscow, meanwhile, doctors said they believed Yegor Gaidar, a former premier and head of a liberal opposition party, may have been poisoned during a conference last week in Ireland, his spokesman Valery Natarov told The Associated Press.Gaidar, 50, became violently ill and was rushed to a hospital in Ireland, but was improving in a Moscow hospital Thursday.... http://www.usatoday.com

All six members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, amid an ongoing Pentagon review of strategy for Iraq, oppose pulling out U.S. troops now, and are also against a specific withdrawal timetable, a defense source said yesterday. "The chiefs are solid. They want victory," the source said. "There is no dissent." The Joint Chiefs -- which includes Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman, along with a vice chairman and the heads of the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Navy -- have been meeting several times a week to review a list of Iraq options for President Bush. The Pentagon has said all options are open for consideration during the far-reaching review. But on the question of withdrawal, the issue is settled in favor of Mr. Bush's position, the source said. "We are looking at the whole spectrum of possible military actions," Gen. Pace said yesterday. "I'm not going to say to you where I am personally, nor where the chiefs are, because our responsibility is to give our best military advice." ...http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20061130-123121-9493r.htm

Yesterday's announcement that the prison population now exceeds 80,000 is the latest low point in what one can only describe as the Government's headlong and self-induced race to absurdity as far as the conduct of imprisonment is concerned. The reasons for this dreadful figure are not hard to find. If you produce legislation that results in longer prison sentences, more people will be in prison. If you do not resource prisons, to enable them to conduct work, education and training, prisoners are more likely to reoffend, as proved by the fact that the reoffending rate among adult males has gone up from 55 per cent to 67 per cent in the past five years. If you continue to have a dysfunctionally organised prison service, you will continue to have dysfunctional organisation of an overstretched system. And so on. Many people have been warning the Government about this for years but, instead of listening experience, it has preferred to take advice from...http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2026812.ece

A record 7 million people - or one in every 32 American adults - were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday. More than 4.1 million people were on probation and 784,208 were on parole at the end of 2005. Prison releases are increasing, but admissions are increasing more.Men still far outnumber women in prisons and jails, but the female population is growing faster. Over the past year, the female population in state or federal prison increased 2.6 percent while the number of male inmates rose 1.9 percent. By year's end, 7 percent of all inmates were women. The gender figures do not include inmates in local jails. "Today's figures fail to capture incarceration's impact on the thousands of children left behind by mothers in prison," ...http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PRISON_POPULATION?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

It's the beginning of another workday in New Delhi's bustling Kotla Mubarakpur market, and among the busiest lanes is "Nashewali Gali" — "Addiction Alley" in Hindi.Men sidle down the lane, an infamous hangout for addicts, to a sparsely furnished whitewashed room that's become a front line in India's battle against the spread of the deadly HIV virus.There, protected from prying eyes by a striped curtain strung across the open door, addicts young and old exchange dirty needles for clean ones.Such programs are common, if controversial, in many parts of the world. But they are just beginning to take off in India, where most anti-HIV efforts largely focused on promoting safe sex among high-risk groups such as sex workers, truckers and migrant laborers, with an emphasis on distributing condoms and encouraging their use....http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-11-29-india-hiv_x.htm?csp=34

Sheriff's deputies pulled a naked man from the jaws of a nearly 12-foot long alligator that almost completely severed the man's arm, the sheriff's office said.Four deputies waded through thick mud about 20 feet into Lake Parker to find Adrian Apgar, 45, around 4 a.m. Wednesday morning, the sheriff's office said. They were responding to multiple reports about a man screaming for help.Deputy Billy Osborne said he pulled Apgar's arms while the gator gripped the man's lower half and eventually helped pull Apgar free. The deputies said they couldn't shoot the animal because it was too dark and they might have hit the victim.It was not clear why Apgar was in the water at such an early hour. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Apgar told deputies he had been smoking crack....http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-29-gator-attack_x.htm?csp=34